Your sleeping position has multiple implications for your health in general. It could cause some back pain for some and actually ameliorate some already existing pain in others. Some people have also experienced more issues after making sleeping on their backs a regularity or habitual practice.
Sleeping on your back could amplify the severity of such issues hence necessitating some immediate medical attention in order to remedy the same. This article shall delve deep and establish whether sleeping on your back has any benefits and if it is associated with, any long-established bodily problems or if it is a just mythical idea with no logical or factual basis.
Benefits of Sleeping on the Back
- Heartburn Remedy
Sleeping on your back is a remedy for heartburn especially when your body is well elevated using a pillow. This helps to reduce heartburn to a higher degree by aiding with acid reflux. It is not necessarily a permanent solution but it serves as a temporal measure or adjunct to other modes of medical interventions.
- Less Neck Pain
Neck pains have become a niggling issue to many people in recent times. This could be attributed to several factors hence people often rush to the doctor or chiropractor for solutions or advice. Most neck pains are associated with bad posture and dangerous sleeping positions. It could pose or tend to be a fatal problem in the future if not solved upon detection. Contrary to popular opinions, sleeping on your back actually helps to lessen neck pains since the body is basically in a neutral position. This means that the spine, neck and head are perfectly aligned and any instances that could lead or culminate to pain are eliminated forthwith.
Dangers of Sleeping on the Back
- Pregnancy
Women should totally avoid sleeping on their back at any stages of their pregnancy. This position limits circulation to the baby hence affecting growth and potentially causing other problems which either manifest during the pregnancy or in the subsequent developmental stages of the child. Sleeping on your back also inhibits the uterus from pressing against your liver, which is not ideal in the initial and formative stages of the pregnancy. The best sleeping position for pregnant women is the fetal position as it ensures that all these issues are definitely kept at bay.
- Snoring
Sleeping on your back could affect you and lead to excessive snoring as it often causes breathing challenges. Some people try to diversify their back sleeping positions by adopting some varied styles such as starfish or soldier positions but this has no any proven advantages. Sleeping on your back will make you snore and could be detrimental and dangerous to those who already have some other pre-existing conditions such as sleep apnea. It is therefore prudent that you cease and desist from the same to steer away from these avoidable medical issues.
- Neurological Issues
Sleeping on your back hinders your brain from effectively clearing waste compared to when you sleep in other positions such as the side. This could cause or trigger neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s. It might tend to be a simplified argument but it has some solid medical foundation. Sleeping on your back could therefore cause you some serious neurological issues if done for an extended period.
- Back Pain
This position causes lower back problems. The back is often strained and constantly in an unnatural position. This has some ramifications as it leads to lower back pains that can tend to be quite problematic.
- Poor Sleep
Sleeping on your back usually affects the supply of blood to your neck all the way to your face and brain. It leads to very poor sleep whilst affecting your sleeping patterns and cognitive abilities in general. This is often associated with the problems that it causes to your carotid artery.
The aforementioned are the several benefits and dangers of sleeping on your back. The dangers clearly outweigh or outnumber the benefits. The benefits are also not somewhat significant. It is therefore imperative that anyone avoids this sleeping position as the short-term and long-term effects associated with it are not beneficial.